- Dominic Fonde
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Dominic John Fonde (born 26 March 1974) is a British glass artist, working with blown and engraved glass. A typical example of his work is a blown glass plate engraved with an original short story. According to information on his website Fonde uses the drill engraving technique and on rare occasions the sandblasting technique. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2001. He has exhibited widely around the UK and created and toured a number of events that mixed glass art with haiku poetry, children's drawings and opera. For the Ten Green Bottles Exhibition he wrote a short story based on the children's song Ten Green Bottles; "If one green bottle should accidentally fall..." In this exhibition he asked a class of primary school children to illustrate the story. The illustrations were then passed to ten glass artists, some notable figures on the British glass scene others were promising students who made the bottles as the children had drawn them. The most notable artists were Keiko Mukaide, Ray Flavell and Jane Charles. At the last venue on the tour the bottles were auctioned for the charity "Pod". Prof. Dan Klein acted as auctioneer.
Fonde has served as a committee member for Cohesion Glass Network and for the Contemporary Glass Society where he acted as editor of the newsletter.
Although originally from the UK, Fonde has lived and worked in Singapore since 2006 where he is part of the company Art Glass Solutions. On the Art glass Solutions website and in a press release dated 19 October 2008 he claimed to be "the only professional glass engraver in Singapore".Art Glass Solutions Pte. Ltd.
Contents
Themes
Fonde's work is unusual in that the text that he decorates his glass work with tends to be very complete short stories that could easily exist without the glass, although the stories themselves always make a direct reference to a glass object. Recurrent themes in Fondé's engraved work appear to be the anthropomorphism of glass vessels to comment on the human condition. This is done through short stories describing the glass object, usually a vase or a platter or some kind, observing the people who may use it as a receptacle for flowers and discussing said people’s emotional state. The tone of the stories is humorous although often with a slightly barbed or dark undertone.
Since 2008 Fondé seems to be concentrating more on curating glass and mixed media exhibitions. He curated “Palimpsest” an exhibition in that took place in Singapore in November 2009 in which artists worked in pairs, generating mixed media artworks by working directly on to an existing artworks provided by one of the pair. This exhibition may be seen as an ongoing interest in collaboration and dialogue between groups and pairings of artists that began in the “Ten Green Bottles” project and continued through the “Haiku and Glass” project in 2001.
"The word dialogue is central to the concept of this show. Although the title is "Palimpsest" it could just as easily have been "Catalyst" a jumping off point for artists to begin to work, to meet with each other, experiment with glass and other materials and crucially share ideas and communicate" ref>(Palimpsest Exhibition catalogue page 6)<</ref>
"I rarely look at glass for inspiration. If I'm writing it will be music that sets the tone usually, finding an atmosphere that you want to recreate. Film is also inspiring, but mostly its people. i can watch people endlessly. The strange little quirks they have and the things they do tend to be starting points for stories. Inevitably the stories describe a glass object. So I guess the glass is an illustration of the story". Dominic Fonde[1]
Education
Master of Design (specialising in blown glass) at The Edinburgh College of Art. Grad. 2001 B.A.Hons in Ceramics and Glass 2.1 at The Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education. 1993 to 1996 Foundation Studies in Art and Design at the Newcastle College of Art and Technology 1992-93
Exhibitions
Palimpsest. group exhibition in Singapore Nov 2009
“Fragments” group show at Forth Gallery, 69a Pagoda Street, Singapore. May 2008
6 engraved plates with short stories for Adamson Noon, London April 2007
“My Secret Garden” 3 engraved windows for Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses. Jan. 2007
Featured artist at The Strathearn Gallery Feb - March 2006
The Chelsea Crafts Fair 2004 and 2005
Art in Action. Waterperry House, Oxon July 2005
Verbatim:The Art of Text, Byard Art, Cambridge June 2005
21st Century Glass. The Daniel Katz Gallery London Jan. 2005
British Glass, Glass Inspiration, Burgdorf Switzerland Nov 2004
British Glass Biennale 2004 Ruskin Mill Stourbridge
Haiku and Glass A series of collaborations between eleven glass artists and eleven poets. Curated by Dominic Fondé June - Sept. 2003 The Bowes Museum Oct to Dec. 2003 The Glass Art Gallery, London Jan - Feb 2004 The World Of Glass, St. Helens April - May 2004 The Customs House, South Shields
“Storylines” April 2003 The Scottish Gallery
“9 x 9”The leather Market, Weston Street, London.
“Ten Green Bottles” Work by ten glass blowers, based on a short story by Dominic Fondé and drawings by primary school children. Curated by Dominic Fondé
March - May 2002 The Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead. August - Sept. 2002 The National Glass Centre, Sunderland Oct. 2002 The World of Glass, St. Helens Nov. 2002 The Edinburgh College of Art 4 March 2004 Charity Auction in aid of POD at The Shipley Art Galley, Gateshead
Collections
The Pilkington Collection, The World of Glass, St. Helens The Collection of Prof. Dan Klein and Alan Poole, London
Publications
Article “Under pressure” for Glashaus” magazine July 2008 Article “Postcard from China” Contemporary Glass Society Newsletter Spring 2008 Featured in “Techniques of Glass Engraving” Peter Dreiser and Jonathan Matcham. A & C Black ISBN 0713675160
References
speaking in Glass network issue 28 (CGS newsletter) June 2008 page 7 [2]
External links
- www.dominicfonde.com
- http://www.artglasssolutions.com
- www.cgs.org.uk
Categories:- British artists
- 1974 births
- Living people
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